(a) The county council is, for all of the purposes of this chapter, designated as the district council for the Montgomery County Suburban District, and such council is hereby given, for the purposes of this chapter, all legislative powers with which it can, in a constitutional manner, be vested by the general assembly of Maryland. The county executive is, for all the purposes of this chapter, designated as the executive officer for the Montgomery County Suburban District. In addition to the powers vested in the council by existing law, the council is hereby authorized within the district to prescribe by law reasonable standards affecting the kind, size and character (including the material used therein) of buildings to be erected in the district; to prescribe by law for the licensing for the purpose of regulation or revenue all and every kind of business transacted or carried on within the district and to fix the rate of license upon the same or by law authorize the county executive to set the rate of license fees and provide for the collection thereof by suit or otherwise; to prescribe by law for the licensing and regulation of any place of public amusement or recreation, pleasure parks, picnic grounds, clubhouses, theatrical exhibitions, baseball grounds, bowling alleys, billiard halls, poolrooms, camp meeting grounds, graveyards, sanitariums, hospitals, homes for the aged, orphan asylums, homes for children and convalescent homes, signs or signboards on or near state or county roads; provided, that the power of the county to inspect, license and regulate clubhouses shall not apply to clubhouses of country clubs within the district which were in existence and operation on January 1, 1927, and which on that date had a public or private list of fifty (50) or more bona fide members paying dues and which on that date maintained on the club premises at least two (2) of the following athletic facilities for their membership:
(1) A golf course of nine (9) holes or more;
(2) Two (2) or more tennis courts; or
(3) A swimming pool not less than forty (40) feet in length and twenty (20) feet in width.
(b) The council is further authorized to adopt and enforce uniform schedules of fees for licensing any class of business or enterprise as it may deem necessary, or the council by resolution may authorize the county executive by regulation to establish such fees, not to exceed the reasonable costs of licensing and enforcement. Such fees as shall be collected shall be paid over to the director of finance for the use of the district. The council is further authorized to provide by law for the county executive to promulgate reasonable regulations for the control of vehicular traffic on the public highways of such area, insofar as such regulations shall not be in conflict with the motor vehicle laws of the state; to designate certain streets or highways as arterial highways or boulevards, and to require all vehicles to stop at certain places to be designated from time to time; to establish and maintain on the public streets or highways traffic signs and directors, silent policemen, traffic lights and any and all devices deemed necessary for the control of traffic; to designate streets or portions of streets as one-way lanes of travel in such direction as may from time to time be designated; to prescribe the method and manner of parking vehicles on the public streets; to designate certain areas or streets or portions thereof as "no parking areas," and to prohibit the parking of any vehicle in such areas at such time as they may designate. The council is authorized to prescribe by law reasonable penalties for the violations of any such regulations promulgated by the county executive.
(c) The county is authorized and empowered to construct streets, sidewalks, gutters, alleys and curbs; to erect, maintain and protect such buildings for municipal purposes as may be deemed necessary and proper; to cause the public streets and public buildings to be lighted; to permit under such restrictions as it may deem proper; not inconsistent with existing law, the laying of railroad tracks and the running of cars propelled by steam, electricity or other power thereon; to permit the construction and maintenance of telegraph, telephone and electric lines and gas mains on or in the public streets, and to impose such restrictions and conditions upon the location and maintenance of gas, electric light and trolley wires, poles, pipes and railroad tracks as shall secure the least possible public or private inconvenience; provided, however, that such permits as to underground construction shall be in addition to those required by existing law; to contract for periods not exceeding five (5) years with any public or private corporation or any person for supplying the district or the inhabitants thereof with gas or electricity or for any general municipal purpose except the furnishing of water or sewer service; provided, however, that such contracts shall be let only as prescribed by law for county contracts; to provide for condemning, laying out, opening, extending and making new streets or alleys and pedestrian routes or sidewalks and for altering, straightening, widening, grading, improving or closing up in whole or in part any existing street or alley; and to assess the total cost of any proportion thereof against abutting property, where such work is to be financed by special or front-foot benefit assessment; to acquire by gift, dedication, purchase, condemnation or otherwise all and any interest whatsoever in any land, buildings and materials deemed necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter, and for the purposes of performing its duties for the Montgomery County Suburban District, the county is authorized and empowered to acquire land for public purposes by condemnation, as fully and with all power possessed by any private or public corporation of this state and in exercising the power to eminent domain herein granted the county shall proceed in the manner provided by the laws of the state relating to condemnation, as if the county were a municipal corporation named in the laws: To fix specifications of and issue permits for the construction of streets, sidewalks, curbs and gutters by any subdivider, developer or individual, to require compliance therewith and to provide for the inspection and supervision of such work, the cost thereof to be borne by such subdivider, developer or individual; to regulate and control the collection and disposal of ashes, trash, garbage and other refuse in the district; to establish and maintain such service as may be deemed necessary or desirable for the protection of the health and safety of the public in collecting and disposing of garbage, ashes, trash and refuse, and for the cleaning of streets, alleys and sidewalks; to license or contract, as may be deemed necessary, with a contractor, after providing for the receiving of bids and the awarding of such licenses or contracts to perform the service of collecting and disposing of such ashes, trash, garbage and refuse, under such regulations as may be established to authorize reasonable charges for such services and to provide the method of collecting the same.
(d) For the purpose of carrying out any power or discharging any duty conferred by this chapter and in order to safeguard and protect the public health, safety or morals, the council may, by law, authorize the county executive to promulgate rules or regulations concerning any of the powers or subjects of this chapter; provided, that such rules or regulations shall contain proper standards for the exercise of the discretion conferred herein and shall operate uniformly. Any person who violates the provisions of the rules or regulations so promulgated, upon conviction before any court having criminal jurisdiction in the county shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined not more than fifty dollars ($50.00) for each violation, and in default of any fine so imposed may be imprisoned for a period not to exceed thirty (30) days for each violation; provided further, that in any prosecution for the violation of any rule or regulation or any provision thereof, it shall not be necessary to set forth the same in full or verbatim, but it shall be deemed sufficient if the warrant, information or indictment upon which the person alleged to have violated the provision of any such rule or regulation shall be tried, shall recite generally and briefly the title and number of such rule or regulation, with the date of its passage, a description of the offense in words of common usage, or if the rule or regulation has been embraced in a codification, if it refers to the number of the section of such codification and conforms to the rules of law governing the framing of indictments for violation of acts of the general assembly of this state and concludes "against the form of the rule or regulation in such case made and provided, and against the peace, government and dignity of the state." (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 47-2; 1927, ch. 692, § 2; 1931, ch. 459, § 1; 1971 L.M.C., ch. 14, § 1.)
Editor’s note—The above section is interpreted in Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission v. Elgin, 53 Md.App. 452, 454 A.2d 408 (1983).